The distraught father of a teenage daughter contacted The Tennessee Star on Thursday and expressed his concern about the treatment his daughter has been receiving at Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, part of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).
The Star received the email after it published the notes taken by a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigator who reviewed at least 75 pages of documents the department obtained from VUMC following a June 1, 2023 search warrant.
Additionally, The Star published police documents and reviewed MNPD materials which confirm Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at VUMC, and was prescribed at least five medications, including three anti-anxiety medications and an antidepressant, prior to her attack.
“I am writing to you as a result of your investigation regarding Audrey Hale and the reprehensible ‘care’ she received at Vanderbilt [Psychiatric Hospital], ” the father told The Star.
The father explained that he and his daughter’s mother are divorced and the the mother has custody of the daughter.
He wrote that his daughter, still a minor teenager, “was briefly admitted to Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital in late 2020 and again in 2021.”
The father continued, “During her time at the Psychiatric Hospital, my daughter began mentioning a trans lifestyle and adopted a male name.”
Born a biological female, Hale identified as a transgender man at the time of her devastating March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members.
It is unclear when Hale began identifying as a transgender male, but she was already using the name Aiden at the beginning of her journal, which appears to have been started in January 2023.
The distraught father of the teenage girl told The Star, “I have reason but no concrete proof to believe that the Psychiatric Hospital played a role in molding and shaping her into wanting to live a trans lifestyle.”
The father’s email, highlighting his concerns about VUMC and its treatment of his daughter, was sent after The Star reported a source familiar with the Covenant investigation also told The Star that MNPD Chief John Drake acknowledged VUMC staff failed their duty to warn Hale’s intended victims, potentially opening them to civil liability for Hale’s attack.
Additionally, the notes by an MNPD investigator claim Hale told VUMC personnel she experienced fantasies of committing suicide, killing her father and orchestrating a mass shooting on a school. Hale also wrote about her desire to murder her father in the journal police recovered from her vehicle, which The Star confirmed it obtained on June 5.
“Knowing what I now know, I also believe that the same people who treated Audrey Hale have treated and may well be presently treating my daughter,” the father told The Star.
He continued, “This begs the question – is Vanderbilt’s Psychiatric Hospital an incubator for creating psychologically compromised trans youth who are then referred for transition surgery at the main hospital?”
VUMC told The Star earlier this week it cannot comment on the documents which claim Hale was treated at the hospital and expressed violent fantasies due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act.
Previously, VUMC did not respond to inquiries from The Star that sought to establish whether Hale sought gender affirming care at VUMC, or whether she informed her mental health care team at VUMC that she identified as a transgender man named Aiden.
The Star first contacted VUMC for comment on June 4, after retired MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson claimed mental health professionals failed to warn law enforcement after learning of Hale’s fantasies.
“My point of all of this is IF (in caps for a reason) [VUMC] did this to Audrey Hale as well as my daughter, there MUST be others who are in the same predicament,” the father told The Star.
He declared, “Without question [VUMC] should be held accountable for what they did to Audrey but possibly have done to my daughter and other youngsters.”
Police documents show Hale was treated by VUMC beginning in 2001, when she was just six. The killer had one psychologist until 2019, when she was reportedly referred for commitment at VUMC.
Rather than commit Hale, the hospital apparently opted for a VUMC Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP). The Star reviewed a folder, recovered from the Hale family home, which contained documents related to this program that revealed the future killer was provided with “soothing techniques” apparently intended to curb her anxiety.
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuits to compel both MNPD and the FBI to release Hale’s full writings, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
Earlier this month, The Star confirmed it obtained about 80 pages from a journal written by Hale, as well as a tranche of police documents related to the Covenant investigation.
Among these documents are an FBI memo, sent to MNPD Chief John Drake in May 2023, which “strongly” advises against releasing “legacy tokens” left by individuals like Hale. An FBI definition suggests the agency considers both the writings obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuit to be “legacy tokens” unfit for public release.
The FBI declined to confirm it sent the memo in a statement to The Star, but acknowledged it sends such “products” to local law enforcement.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital” by Vanderbilt Health.
The good transmission (think of its shorter name) is the one under my car.
It was evident from the beginning of the Covenant investigation that the FBI was covering for some one or some thing. I guessed VUMC. After all they were caught last year performing mutilation surgeries on minors. THIS IS NOTHING BUT EVIL. It doesnt matter whether parents approved, or not. ITS EVIL. GROWN ASS HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS ARE SUPPOSED TO FIRST DO NO HARM. We have to be able to trust them above all.
The worst of it is these innocent children are STERILIZED. They can never have families of their own. They will be paying clients for the rest of their lives. They bring in BIG BUX. I think that’s the ultimate GOAL
WHEN? WHO? In the Medical Training Business decided it would be OK to brutally abuse children.
Now THESE CRIMINALS are “counseling” children to become Trans, so when they become 18, after years of indoctrination, they can then legally be able to finally remove their penis or breasts, as if this is going to resolve their mental illness.
These doctors, clinicians, counselors & hospitals should lose their license to practice any kind of medicine. They also should be prosecuted & jailed & forced to make financial restitution to these victims.
We thought we had seen the worst of mankind & medicine during the Fauci / Pharma hoax. But no, what else are the Joseph Mengele Schools of medicine going to force on innocent people down the road?
They’re no worse than Barabarian Terrorists that flew suicide planes into the Twin Towers.
They must be eliminated.
Which medications was she on? For how long and what dosages? I’m sorry but I would not feel comfortable sending any child to a Psychologist under the current treatment protocols being pushed and which are probably mandated by employers and Boards as standard of care. Absolutely the Father has the right for concern and the relationship of Doctors to Hospital privelages thus pressures that are in place in the system.
BDS Vandy!